Wareham will face a difficult upcoming budget year as significantly less money is available for school and municipal operations.

Selectmen received their first official look at the budget and learned of the news on Tuesday night.

“It’s a very distressing budget,” said Selectmen Chair Judith Whiteside. “But there’s absolutely no way around it.”

Town Administrator Derek Sullivan, who compiled a report on the budget, was absent from the meeting. However, he will give an in-depth presentation on the numbers and budget breakdown in the future.

Unfortunately for the town, a balanced budget means operating at a budget level below what was provided for in fiscal year 2017, which will end July 1, 2017.

In his report, Sullivan estimated the town budget would be $62,237,618. However, he noted that figure could change before the budget is finalized.

To balance the budget, Sullivan said that $226,307 must be cut from the town and school budgets. Broken down, that means on the town side the budget must be $75,668 less than the fiscal year 2017 budget and the school budget must be $150,639 less. Since Wareham's fiscal year runs from July to July, Fiscal Year 2018 will run from July of 2017 to July of 2018.

The cuts were determined using a revenue sharing calculation adopted by the Community Compact Initiative started by Governor Charlie Baker.

That news comes after the town and school drafted budgets that requested $378,701 and $2 million increases, respectively.

According to Sullivan, the cuts are required to address increasing health insurance costs and state assessments. In particular, health insurance costs will rise by $1.6 million compared to the previous fiscal year. State assessments, which include fees associated with School Choice, have more than quadrupled in the past five years.